Long-Term Response to PD-1 and CTLA-4 Blockade in an SCLC Patient with Negative PD-L1 Expression on Biopsy: A Case Report

Despite recent advances in the availability of new therapeutic agents, small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) remains an aggressive disease with a poor prognosis. While immune checkpoint inhibition has revolutionized the treatment of non-small cell histologies, results in SCLC have shown overall less favorable evolution, and despite initial data from different trials showing potential for development, the lack of reliable biomarkers for patient selection is a major hindrance to their use. Most notably, programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression does not appear to play a key role in SCLC responsiveness to immune checkpoint inhibition. While other biomarkers such as tumor mutational burden (TMB) have been suggested to be more relevant, literature data are not univocal on this subject. We report here on a 58-year-old patient with metastatic PD-L1-negative SCLC treated in an advanced and symptomatic setting who obtained a complete and sustained clinical and radiological response to the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab. We also discuss the impact of treatment-related adverse events, such as autoimmune hypothyroidism, gastroenteric toxicity and pneumonitis, on his quality of life. This case, while it exemplifies the potential of immune checkpoint inhibition in SCLC, highlights the need for a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying its efficacy in order to identify patients who are more likely to benefit from treatment

Reproductive biology and embryonic development of Eledone cirrosa (Cephalopoda: Octopoda)

Analyses of bottom trawl samples and feeding experiments in the laboratory revealed a reproduction period ranging from late March to early August in Eledone cirrosa of the Catalonian Sea (Western Mediterranean). The embryonic development, studied for the first time on eggs laid in the laboratory, shows no basic difference from that of other Octopodiae. The newly hatched animals are planctonic; Morphologically, this feature is expressed by a relatively small arm-length

Laboratory rearing of Sepiolinae (Mollusca: cephalopoda)

Five species of Sepiola were reared in the laboratory from egg to adult size. Spawning was achieved in 3 species of Sepiola afteer 5 to 7 months. The growth rate of the species reared did not depend upon temperature, which ranged from 12,5° to 20°C. A fairly constant size increase (2,5mm mantle length/month) was observed in Sepiola during the 5 months after hatching. In Sepietta, the same growth rate was observed until the fourth month after hatching, when it increased to the rate of 5 mm mantle length/month